Shore residents lose round 1 in battle to save home

Bay Shore residents speak during a Belmont Shore Parking & Business Improvement Area Advisory Commission meeting to voice their concerns over a proposed new parking lot at the Bay Shore Library in Long Beach, CA on Thursday February 20, 2014. CHRISTIAN RANDOLPH, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

AT A GLANCE

The background: The city of Long Beach makes an offer to buy the home at 205 La Verne Ave. for more than $640,000, and owner Vickie Wallace, who now lives in Canon, Ga., accepts it on Nov. 19.

The latest: The Belmont Shore Parking and Business Improvement Area Advisory Commission voted 4-1 Thursday to approve a plan to buy the home and recommend that an appraisal be done on the neighbor's house at 207 La Verne. If the parking lot proposal is found to have a negative impact on the value of the neighboring house, the commission wants the city to pay cash or give land to the homeowner at 207 La Verne to make up for the loss.

What's next? The title to sell the house at 205 La Verne is getting cleared for sale in probate court. The house then goes into escrow, with Long Beach as the buyer. Officials say it will take until at least April for this to happen.

More meetings: Long Beach Planning Commission must still review the purchase to determine if it is OK with zoning codes to tear down the home and turn it into a parking lot. A public hearing will be held on the sale before the commission, which then turns over the proposal to the City Council for final consideration. Dates for hearings and votes on the matter have not yet been scheduled.

AT A GLANCE

The background: The city of Long Beach makes an offer to buy the home at 205 La Verne Ave. for more than $640,000, and owner Vickie Wallace, who now lives in Canon, Ga., accepts it on Nov. 19.

The latest: The Belmont Shore Parking and Business Improvement Area Advisory Commission voted 4-1 Thursday to approve a plan to buy the home and recommend that an appraisal be done on the neighbor's house at 207 La Verne. If the parking lot proposal is found to have a negative impact on the value of the neighboring house, the commission wants the city to pay cash or give land to the homeowner at 207 La Verne to make up for the loss.

What's next? The title to sell the house at 205 La Verne is getting cleared for sale in probate court. The house then goes into escrow with Long Beach as the buyer. Officials say it will take until at least April for this to happen.

More meetings: Long Beach Planning Commission must still review the purchase to determine if it is OK with zoning codes to tear down the home and turn it into a parking lot. A public hearing will be held on the sale before the commission, which then turns over the proposal to City Council for final consideration. Dates for hearings and votes on the matter have not yet been scheduled.

– Pat Maio

A vocal group of not-in-my-backyard Belmont Shore residents failed to derail a plan Thursday to buy a La Verne Avenue home that Long Beach wants to turn into a parking lot.

With Belmont Shore homeowners waving signs reading “Save Our Homes,” the seven-member Belmont Shore Parking and Business Improvement Area Commission approved a city-led plan to buy a nearly century-old hacienda-style home at 205 La Verne that will be razed for an eight-space parking lot.

The advisory commission voted 4-1 to approve buying the home for more than $640,000. It also voted to get an appraisal on the neighbor's home at 207 La Verne to see if its value might be negatively impacted should a 6-foot-high retaining wall be built on its side to separate it from the parking lot.

If the appraisal finds that the value of the home at 207 La Verne is negatively affected, then the advisory commission wants to recommend that the property owner be compensated with cash or land to make up for the loss.

“That's just ludicrous,” said Gail Mutke, co-owner of 207 La Verne. “I feel like it's not fair for me to get something if the neighbors across the street from the parking lot don't get something.”

Mutke and her husband, Alan, have been leading efforts to shoot down the proposal.

“Why tear down a perfectly good house for a parking lot?” asked David Newell, a resident at 208 La Verne. “To spend close to $800,000 (to buy, tear down and develop with retaining walls, landscaping and parking meters) doesn't make sense.”

Two commission members didn't attend, including Samuel Lippke and Lisa Ramelow. They were both excused from the meeting, where 50 residents packed the Bay Shore Branch Library to mostly voice opposition to the plan.

Eric Forsberg cast the lone dissenting vote. He argued that a petition presented by the Mutkes and others showed 85 percent of 48 homeowners along La Verne were opposed to the parking lot.

“If that is the case, I'd be disinclined to move forward with this recommendation,” Forsberg said. “If most people don't like the idea, then I think we're just jamming it down somebody's throat.”

Vickie Wallace, who lives in Canon, Ga., is the homeowner wanting to sell the La Verne home. She agreed to sell on Nov. 19, a few weeks after the City Council met in closed session to negotiate its purchase, according to William Lorbeer, chairman of the parking commission.

Wallace, who has been trying to sell the home for more than a year, couldn't be reached for comment.

Residents against the proposal offered a variety of alternatives.

Everything was suggested from building a multistory parking garage, to expansion of a shuttle bus-pass program for the more than 1,200 employees who work in the business district along East Second Avenue.

Roughly 170 employees are using the bus pass program now, which takes them from lots in the area to Second Street drop-offs. Mike Sheldrake, owner of Polly's Gourmet Coffee in Belmont Shore, and president of the Belmont Shore Business Association, suggested some residents might want to consider pooling their money to buy the La Verne home and to possibly rent it for income.

Bay Shore residents speak during a Belmont Shore Parking & Business Improvement Area Advisory Commission meeting to voice their concerns over a proposed new parking lot at the Bay Shore Library in Long Beach, CA on Thursday February 20, 2014. CHRISTIAN RANDOLPH, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Belmont Shore Parking & Business Improvement Area Advisory Commission Chair William Lorbeer addresses the crowd during a meeting at the Bay Shore Library in Long Beach, CA on Thursday February 20, 2014. CHRISTIAN RANDOLPH, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Belmont Shore residents raise their hands to signal they wish to speak during a Belmont Shore Parking & Business Improvement Area Advisory Commission meeting at the Bay Shore Library in Long Beach, CA on Thursday February 20, 2014. CHRISTIAN RANDOLPH, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Long-time Bay Shore resident Dan Dane addresses the crowd while speaking at a Belmont Shore Parking & Business Improvement Area Advisory Commission meeting at the Bay Shore Library in Long Beach, CA on Thursday February 20, 2014. CHRISTIAN RANDOLPH, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The city of Long Beach has put in a bid to buy this house at 205 Laverne Ave. The city wants to tear down the house and build a parking lot to help alleviate some of the crowded parking conditions along Second Street in Belmont Shore. JEFF GRITCHEN, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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